Thomas Murphy
Murphy in 1985
Born	(1925-05-31)May 31, 1925 Brooklyn,New York City, U.S.
Died	May 25, 2022(2022-05-25) (aged 96) Rye, New York, U.S.
Education	Princeton University Cornell University (BS) Harvard University (MBA)
Occupation	Broadcasting executive
Spouse	Suzanne Murphy (died 2009)
Children	4

Thomas Sawyer Murphy (May 31, 1925 – May 25, 2022) was an American broadcasting executive, and was chair and chief executive officer ofCapital Cities /ABC, Inc. until 1996. Together with fellow Capital Cities executiveDaniel Burke, Murphy engineered the acquisition of theAmerican Broadcasting Company in 1986 for $3.5 billion.^[1] Murphy and Burke, who served as president andchief executive of ABC until 1994, are credited with increasing theprofitability and efficiency of ABC.^[1]

Murphy was born inBrooklyn on May 31, 1925.^[2] His father, Charles, was a lawyer involved inDemocratic Party politics and later worked as a judge in theJudiciary of New York; his mother, Elizabeth (Sawyer), was a homemaker.^[2][3] Murphy initially studied atPrinceton University, before enlisting in theUS Navy and serving from 1943 to 1946.^[2][4] He then studied mechanical engineering atCornell University, graduating with aBachelor of Science in 1945.^[3] After his application toHarvard Business School was rejected, he was employed byTexaco as an oil salesman for a year.^[2] He was later accepted by Harvard and obtained aMaster of Business Administration in 1949, graduating as a Baker Scholar.^[3]

Murphy first worked atKenyon & Eckhardt as an account executive,^[3] before becoming a brand manager forLever Brothers.^[2][3] His fortunes changed when broadcaster and authorLowell Thomas, and his business manager/partner,Frank Smith, led a New York City-based investor group to buy control ofAlbany, New York-based Hudson Valley Broadcasting Company,^[5] in 1954 and hired Murphy to run theWROW stations as their new general manager. Although Murphy did not have any broadcast experience, his leadership and conservative financial restraint helped bring WROW-TV (nowWTEN) to profitability three years later. In December 1957, Hudson Valley merged with Durham Television Enterprises, owners ofWTVD in Durham, North Carolina, to form Capital Cities Television Corporation, which later became Capital Cities Broadcasting Corp. in 1960 andCapital Cities Communications thirteen years later.^[2][3]

Murphy moved up quickly in the ranks of the company. He became Capital Cities' first vice president in 1960. Four years later, he was promoted to president while Smith moved up to become the company's first chairman. After Smith's unexpected death in 1966, Murphy became chairman and chief executive officer, a position that he held for the next 30 years. Under his leadership, he helped build Capital Cities from a small broadcasting company into a multibillion-dollar media conglomerate. He then got into the publishing and newspaper business by buyingFairchild Publications in 1968, and then bought several newspapers includingThe Kansas City Star andFort Worth Star-Telegram. Murphy's biggest acquisition came in 1985 when he bought theAmerican Broadcasting Company for $3.5 billion to form Capital Cities/ABC.^[1][6][7][8] The merger was engineered by Murphy and the man who replaced him as WTEN's station manager,Daniel B. Burke, who became ABC's president.^[1][9]In 1995 Capital Cities / ABC was bought byDisney.^[10] He was a member of the board of directors ofBerkshire Hathaway, General Housewares Corp., Texaco, Inc., Johnson & Johnson, and IBM Corporation^[11] and a life trustee and honorary vice chair ofNew York University.^[12]

Murphy was married to Suzanne Crosby Murphy until her death in 2009. Together, they had four children: Emilie, Thomas Jr., Kathleen, and Mary.^[2][3] Murphy died on May 25, 2022, at his home inRye, New York.^[2][3]

• Television Hall of Fame^[13]
• 1996NATPE Lifetime Achievement Award^[14]

• "Thomas S. Murphy",Encyclopedia of television, Editor Horace Newcomb, CRC Press, 2004,ISBN 978-1-57958-411-5
• Forbes, Malcolm S. "Mighty CEOs Who are Also All-round Nice Guys are Rare."Forbes (New York), December 11, 1989.
• Gibbs, Nancy. "Easy as ABC."Time (New York), August 14, 1995.
• Hawver, W.Capital Cities/ABC The Early Years: 1954-1986 How the Minnow Came to Swallow The Whale. Radnor, Pennsylvania: Chilton, 1994.
• Ländler, Mark. "Creators of the Big Deal, Capital Cities' Tandem Team."The New York Times, August 1, 1995.
• Roberts, Johnnie L. "The Men Behind the Big Megadeals."Newsweek (New York), August 14, 1995.

• "TOM MURPHY",Harvard Business School, December 2000, Amy Blitz

• 1925 births
• 2022 deaths
• American businesspeople in the entertainment industry
• Businesspeople from Brooklyn
• Cornell University alumni
• Harvard Business School alumni
• Military personnel from New York City
• People from Rye, New York
• United States Navy personnel of World War II

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